The agreements on creating and activity of the MIR interstate television company were denounced. On Thursday, May 11, the legislative initiative was voted in the final reading by 56 deputies after this initiative was previously approved by the Government.
According to the voted document, this decision aims to protect the national broadcasting space and to ensure informational security, considering the current regional situation and the threat to national security caused by the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine. The Parliament specifies that, in 2000-2022, financial resources worth over 40 million lei were paid from the state budget to the Moldovan representative office of the MIR Company.
Media Azi wrote that, on April 4, the Government decided to cease financing the MIR interstate television, and on April 19, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the denouncement of the agreements on creating and activity of the institution. Currently, Mir TV and Mir 24 channels common for the CIS area do not have a broadcasting license issued by the Broadcasting Council and, therefore, are not media service providers in the Republic of Moldova. “It is every state’s sovereign right to decide on the presence or absence of international projects or taking part in certain agreements. We regret the decision, but we do not condemn it,” Stanislav Vîjga, director of the Moldovan representative office of the MIR Company, previously declared.
Meanwhile, the institution sued the Ministry of Finance after the authorities had not transferred 2.6 million lei which were to be allocated from the state budget to the company in 2022. The first hearing on the case is scheduled for November 2023.